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PAGE TWO BThe Alleged Inconsistency of | The Jeffersonian M (CONTENDED FROM PAGE ONE.)] •' Jeffersonian has so consistently opposed, ume into the law byway of an amendment, offered by a jew who was born in Berlin, who naturally brought with him to this country his ideas of german militarism. In that manner, German militarism was thrust into a military measure which, with out this clause, would have increased the Army by voluntary enlistment. This was in May: the author of the amend ment is Julius Kahn, M. C. from California. As soon as the conscription card was taken Yom up the sleeve, and laid on the table, I telegraphed to Hon. Champ my hearty endorsement of his stand gainst it, and urged him to fight it out. Even then it was not known outside of congress that the new law gave the Presi dent the power to merge the State Militia . . with the Regular Army, and send it out of the country. Last year, the President said that he had no such power, and that Congress could not give him authority ti£ that extent, because the Constitution required that the militia be kept at home, for domestic purposes. I quoted those Presidential statements in my argument against the new law. Judgs Speer did not rule on this point, be cause the case of the two negroes did not raise it. I am sure, however, that all constitutional Jawyers will recognize the force of it. 7 All the authorities Story, Cooley, Van <;■ Holst, Kent, Blackstone, &c., agree that the ■v militia cannot be used except to repel inva sion, suppress insurrection, and enforce the laws. The idea of forcibly employing the local militia in a foreign war, is entirely antag onistic to English and American principles. Nobody said so more often and more em phatically than Woodrow Wilson, year. o— The Call-off of the Macon Meet ing \V ITH the lights before me*, and in the interests of peace, I decided to call off the Macon meeting, because convinced that an organized effort would be made to prevent peaceable assemblage and free speech. If any mistake was made in this, I take the blame. My information may not have been accurate, and the opposition to the meet ing may have consisted largely of bluff; but there are hot-heads on both sides, and our enemies would have probably provoked some kind of collision. ' < iWe know how the United States soldiers • broke up the peaceable meeting in Boston; how the same thing is being done in New York, and how people are being arrested without warrant throughout the country for “remarks derogatory to the President.” Free speech is a thing of the past. In every city and town there are patriots fattening on war-profits^^nd these men act in collusion, to intimidate citizens who are conscientiously opposed to sending armies to Europe. The statement is boastfully made in the Atlanta dailies that troops were to be used to prevent the meeting in Macon. Also, that the Sheriff of Bibb county was prepared to swear in a sufficient number of deputies to prevent any assemblage outside the city limits. Any such conduct would have been the grossest outrage, but what do these fanatics care for law? They don’t care a bean for the Constitu tion: they resort to the Strong Arm. It is a recurrence to brute force. Prussian militarism, at its worst, is just like that* $ THE JEFFERSONIAN They know they are wrong, and; they don’t dare let the people learn the truth. Suppression is the order of the day. The people must be kept in the dark. If a paper exposes the facts, they shut it out of the mails. If a speaker wants to tell what is going on, they seal up the town and don’t allow him to speak If this way, we commence to liberate the Germans. In this way, we bestow the blessings of democracy upon mankind. Before a shot is fired, we load the country with a debt, now almost twice as large as Germany’s, after Germany has maintained huge armies in France, Russia, Turkey, and the Balkans for more than three years of the most stupendous fighting ever kiiown. We deny to free Americans the simplest natural rights of forming, expressing, and publishing opinions, although our Govern ment itself is built upon the opinion of the majority. We have had no other way of maintaining our institutions, except by the opinions of majorities, legally expressed at the ballot box. But we are now forbidden to have any opinion different from that of the men who were elected, last November, on exactly the opposite opinions to those they now hold. What was Simon-pure democracy last No vember, is rank treason today; and if I pro pose to repeat in Macon the identical senti ments upon which Wilson won votes last. Fall, I am denied the privilege to speak, am sav agely abused by the papers, and am menaced with personal violence. So late as October, 1916, President Wilson made speeches at Shadow Lawn, New Jer sey, in which he took precisely the same posi tion that I take now; but the Maftpn authori ties, who rapturously endorsed, those views last October, decline to permit anyone to re peat them at this time. Why? The essential, facts have not changed, but the President has; and so com plete and devoid of reason is the change, that no one can explain or defend it. Hence, the lid must be clapped on. ’. i The matter must not be talked about. Hush it all up. Maintain silence and divide the money. McAdoo mentioned week before last that he would need nine thousand millions more; and before the papers could be fixed up to suit him, the amount had grown to $11,500,- 000,000. Apparently, it swelled more than two thousand millions while he was calcu- ’ A a . The people of Georgia were never more flagrantly insulted than when the two Macon papers and the City Government autocrat ically announced, that a peaceable assembly should not be held there, to discuss a hurried ly made law which abolishes the State militia, and places the entire civil administration of all the States under martial law. It is the most revolutionary, undemocratic, reactionary, and monarchical law ever put upon a people, sincQ the days when the Pope and the Holy Alliance set in to crush the liberties of continental Europe. It was that unholy alliance which gave rise to Resident Monroe’s famous assertion of the Monroe Doctrine. Pope Pius IX., and the monarchs of France, Prussia, Russia, and Austria deluged Europe with the blood of patriots who gave their lives to establish the natural rights of humanity. (The mortal combat ended with the over"* throw of the Pope’s Temporal Power, in 1870.) • ’ This new law of Nt ay, 1917, cannot bear public discussion. Its supporters dare not let the people know its nature. 7- ‘ • It revolutionizes your republican 'form of government. . It reduces the States to the helpless condi tion of provinces. . It deprives the States of their independent militia. It degrades every State officer—from Gov ernor down to bailiff—to the service of mili tary masters in Washington City. It totally robs the States of their power to protect the life, liberty, and property of their citizens. It gives the President power to order out of the States their governors, their civil offi cials, and every able-bodied man in their , limits, leaving the women and children with out organized or available means of self-de fense AGAINST A NEGRO UPRISING, OT Other form of sudden danger. In short, the hastily adopted Act of May, 1917, rapes the states, and was so intended by the Prussianists and West Pointers who have completely captured the Administra tion, This law cannot stand the brunt of fair analysis and fearless criticism; therefore, the law must be shielded from analysis and crit icism. That’s why I was forbidden to speak in Macon, and that’s why The Jeffersonian is thrown out of the mails. However, if you have some money to spend at the State Fair, a few weeks from now, you will probably be given the privilege of dropping it in Macon. If the Farmers’ Union wants to hold an other convention in Macon, and leave some ducats at the hotels, stores, and boarding ■ houses; no doubt the Central City will con : sent. , If the Masonic Grand Lodge desires to have its usual yearly session in Macon, it might be well to secure an advance permit: for, since the Government administered that kick in Atlanta, the Knights of Columbus •inay not be willing to have the Grand Lodge meet in Macon. MACON MEETING OF DRAFT “ANTIS” NOW CALLED OFF Alleged Watson Has Been Threatened and His 1* amity Refuses to Uct Him Go as Principal Speaker.—Delegates Notified and Asked Not to go to Macon as Authorities Had Determined Meeting Should Not Be Held in County, Even if Soldiers Had to Be Called. Macon, Ga., August 21. (Special.) —C. a. Yarbrough, a dentist, who had made several es - (? rts to obtain a P la ce in this county for Thomas i E. Watson to deliver an anti-draft speech on Thursday night, announced tonight that the meet ing would not be held. “Mr. Watson has received threatening letters from Macon,” said Dr. Yarbrough tonight. “His family will not permit him to fill his appoint ment in Macon on Thursday night.’’ The message came from J. L. Sibley, of Mil ledgeville, who acted as Mr. Watson’s manager for the meeting that had been planned for this city. According to Dr. Yarbrough, Sibley is no tifying the delegates throughout the State not to come to Macon; that the chief speaker, Wat son, will not be here. The message was received late this afternoon. Previous to its receipt, after a local committee nad railed to obtain the courthouse and city hall for the proposed meeting, a vacant lot was ob tained just outside the city limits. The com mittee also arranged to obtain a tent, which they had planned to pitch there during Wednesday. Federal, county and city authorities are ready to act should any anti-draft demonstration be attempted. . Prior to the announcement that the meeting had been called off, every branch of authority was at work determined that the proposed meet ing should not be held in the city of Macon or In Bibb county. The city declined the use of any of its public buildings or parks. The county did the same, Announcement had been made that the entire police force of the city would be used in sup pressing the meeting if it was attempted to be Thursday, AugusOO, 1917.